Wrapping up in Europe

I've finally returned to the US after two months of racing in Europe! It was an awesome experience and tons of fun but I'm really excited to be back home for awhile. I haven't been home since Christmas so I was beginning to miss it a little. After Nove Mesto, I flew to Lahti, Finland with Rosie where we met up with the rest of the ski team. The races in Lahti were a skate sprint and a classic 10k. I raced the skate sprint and was pretty disappointed with how it ended up. Neither my legs or skis felt particularly good but it's hard to say which caused which. Even though my race didn't go well, Lahti was a really cool venue and it was exciting to watch some teammates have exceptional races. Sadie was 9th in the sprint and followed that up with an 18th in the classic 10k. Both were career bests for her! Kikkan won another skate sprint, earning her the crystal globe for the second year in a row. Another highlight of our stay in Lahti was being able to see Finnish skier Aino-Kaisa Saarinen's house and enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal and sauna while there. She was recently married and she and her husband have a beautiful new house!

Kikkan out-lunging Marit

The crew at Aiko's house

Kikkan, Charlotte Kalla, and Aiko kept their bibs on for lunch

Pretty evening sun in Lahti

After the weekend of racing in Lahti, we packed up and headed to Oslo. I had never been to Norway so I was excited to see what all the hype was about! I think it was everything it was built up to be. It didn't hurt that we had beautiful weather the whole time we were there. We stayed just outside of Oslo in Fornebu, but were able to train at Holmenkollen a couple days. I was never able to explore the city but hopefully I'll be back someday! We had the city sprint in Drammen on Wednesday. We arrived at the venue to  sunny skies, huge crowds, and live heavy metal music. It was pretty eye-opening to see how popular cross country skiing is in a place like Norway. Their World Cup skiers are like celebrities there. It's more popular than alpine skiing! It was an awesome experience. Norway got to start 22 women in the sprint because they had their continental cup leaders as well as their nations group. This makes it one of the toughest fields of the year. I just missed qualifying and ended up 35th on the day. It was a little bittersweet knowing I wasn't far from the top 30, but I think this is probably a pretty accurate representation of where I'm skiing right now. I think with a little more practice I could be right in there, but for now I'm happy :). Since I was heading home the following day, I stayed for the afternoon and cheered on our teammates who qualified. Kikkan had a great day and made it to the A final, finishing 5th. Andy also looked great but got his skis taken out from under him in an unfortunate tangle up. Sadie and Torin also had impressive days with strong top 30 finishes. I don't have many pictures from our race day but I do have some from a little photo-shoot Sadie, Rosie and I had down by the ocean.

Holmenkollen stadium

Sadie, Rosie, and me

Sadie has hops!

and so do I!

Rosie and I took in the view

There were some crazy buildings close to our hotel that we heard were part of a technology school. Here is one of the sculptures outside

Holmenkollen jumps

Sadie and Rosie

Drammen Church

Spending the majority of my season in Europe this winter was a pleasant surprise and an awesome experience. There were definitely highs and lows and those tend to be magnified when your main focus is skiing. Even though the difference between a 30th place and a 31st place in a sprint can be .1 seconds, it can be the difference between a great day and a frustrating day. Since everyone is so fast and the times are so tight, I've realized that a lot of things need to go right in order to have a good day on the World Cup. There are so many factors that go into how a race unfolds including energy, skis, sleep, wax, and course. These are just some and while everything isn't going to go perfectly each time, we need to do everything in our control to prepare ourselves the best we can. Some of the best skiers in the World will qualify even if something is off that day, but I'm at the level where I need most (or all) of those factors to be playing in my favor to have a great day. It definitely takes some getting used to but I've learned a lot and it's been so much fun being able to compete in all the races I did in Europe this year. Thank you so much to everyone who helped, especially T2, Level Field, R.K. Miles and SMS and to the USST for the great race support!

Heading to the start with Grover at World Champs (Caldwell Sport photo)

I flew home from Oslo last night and have had a very relaxing day at home. I'm very happy to be home, but there are definitely parts of Europe that I already miss. For example, I miss the soft boiled eggs so this morning I decided to try to make the perfect soft-boiled egg. I think it was a success.

It's very nice to see my cats and family. My sister and brother have spring break from Dartmouth so I'll be able to see a lot of them and we all have our birthdays while we're home (it's not really that crazy because they're twins)! I will be competing in the mini tour at Craftsbury from the 22nd-24th but will otherwise be spending some quality time at home until Spring  Series!

Fat Red

Austin and Dudley Rose

Nice day at home

Dudley Rose the senile princess

Nove Mesto

I flew to Nove Mesto on Thursday after taking a mini break from skiing for a few days in Venice. I had never been to Venice before and it was beautiful, relaxing, and extra special because I got to see Dan! I was feeling very rested and excited to start racing again when I started my travel day to Nove Mesto, but it ended up being a disaster of a day. It turns out that getting from Venice to Nove Mesto is not easy to begin with, but booking a plane ticket for March 28th instead of February 28th makes matters much worse. I took a train from Venice to Milan (I know, wrong direction) and then was planning on flying from there to Prague and taking another train from Prague to Brno, where Gus was picking me up. I cut it close getting to the airport in Milan because it's an hour away from the train station and then when I arrived in Milan, I wasn't able to check in because I had made the stupid mistake of booking my ticket for the wrong month. I had a minor breakdown in the airport (sorry for waking you up in the middle of the night, Dad!) but eventually figured everything out and was on my way again. I was so happy to see Gus when I finally got to Brno that I almost started crying. Luckily, Erik Bjornsen's friend let me give him my ski bag in Val di Fiemme because he was driving to Nove Mesto, so I didn't have to worry about dragging that around all day. I got to Nove Mesto pretty late Thursday night but just in time to say goodnight to my roomies, Erika and Rosie! I hadn't seen either of them since Nationals and they're two of my best friends who were also my teammates at Dartmouth, so I was really excited to spend the weekend with them.

Venice

Venice

Dan

Erika, Rosie, and me as teammates at Dartmouth

Nove Mesto didn't have a ton of snow but the 4k loop they did have was great. The stands from Biathlon World Champs were still set up so it was exciting to be in that stadium even though they were empty for our race. Our first race of the weekend was a 3.3k skate prologue on Saturday. It went well and I ended up 3rd, only .6 seconds behind Fitz and another girl who tied for first! Paddy also had a great day, finishing 4th overall and 1st junior! The prizes they were giving out were skis and snow blades so our team collected some goodies over the course of the weekend.

shared podium!

Paddy

Erika

Sunday was a pursuit start classic 10k. Rosie, Fitz, and I skied most of the race together but Rosie took a little crash the last lap and Fitz and I had a lunge for the line. It was pretty close but Fitz got it! It was a fun day of racing. I've lost quite a few lunges in the past 12 months so I think I'll be working on my splits this summer.

The Lunge

Solid US representation on the podium!

The cat that lived on the stairs in Nove Mesto. See you soon Dudley Rose and Red!

the girls (Sophie, ERika, Rosie, Becca, Fitz)

Gus testing out my snow blades

Rosie and I flew from Prague to Helsinki yesterday. We met up with Dakota and the rest of the US team will join us tomorrow. This weekend I will be racing the skate sprint on Saturday and there is also a classic 10k on Sunday that I will be watching. We will fly to Oslo on Monday and I will do the classic sprint on Wednesday in Drammen before flying home on Thursday. The next week of racing should be fun and I'm also very excited to head home soon because I haven't been back since Christmas!

Davos and World Champs in Photos!!

I'm a little behind on my updating so I'll catch everyone up with some photos!

I spent about 5 days in Davos doing some training and racing the classic sprint World Cup. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but Davos was an incredible place and it was a lot of fun to be back at a World Cup! Something worth noting was that Sadie and I tied to the hundredth in a prelim that was over 4 mins - a true Sodie moment!

Big snowy mountains

trains!

Alphorn!

Toi tois

Andy 4th in Davos sprint!

After the weekend of racing in Davos, we packed up and drove to Val di Fiemme for World Champs!! We were staying in a little town called Predazzo, located about 10 mins from the World Champs stadium. We were also able to ski to the stadium from Predazzo on the Marcialonga trail. This was a nice option because it's very flat and the race courses are very hilly and sometimes hard to train on. I raced the classic sprint at World Champs. I qualified in 30th place, just barely squeaking into the heats. I ended up 4th in my quarter final and 20th on the day and it was so much fun. My heat was extremely hard but I tried to ski tactically well and fight for every position. Personally, I was happy with how my race went, but I know some of my teammates ended up a little disappointed with their results. It was a tricky waxing day and it was a course where you needed skis that were both fast and kicking because it had some big hills as well as a lot of double poling.

Liz and Andy

Ida, Jessie, and Sades

Jessie and Sadie

Valentine from my momma!

skiing the Marcialonga with Ides

Me and Jessie

pre race prep

my quarter final heat in the finishing stretch

my prelim

Now for the most exciting part of the week....yesterday I was able to witness Kikkan and Jessie become World Champs!!! It was AWESOME - definitely one of the most exciting days of skiing I've ever been a part of. It was so much fun being a part of the team this week and I have so much respect for everyone competing and know they're going to have a bunch more kickass results in the rest of the week. My next races are the Slavic Cups in Nove Mesto the first weekend in March and then I'll race in the World Cup Sprints in Lahti and Drammen before heading home March 14th!!

All smiles on the big screen

Big group of US fans

World Champs!

That's my roomie!

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Scando Cups to Davos

The Scando Cup crew had a busy week with four races in five days! Our first two races were distance races in Latvia. Wednesday was a 5k individual classic and Thursday was a mass start 10k skate. Wednesday was my first hard effort since U23s because I had been sick so I was a little nervous about how it would feel, but it ended up going quite well! These are really competitive fields that are stacked with primarily Norwegians, but also a handful of skiers from Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia. Caitlin Patterson had a great race and was 10th and I was about a second behind her in 11th! Temperatures were right around 0 degrees C with some falling snow so all the Americans ended up racing on zeroes. Reese Hanneman also had a great race, placing 24th in the men's 10k classic. The men's field was much bigger than the women's and he was only 20 seconds out of the top 10! The following day did not go as well for me, it was a really fast pace from the start and I got pretty tired but was able to recollect myself and have a strong finish. The highlights of that day were Caitlin Patterson's 9th place and Eric Packer's 16th place. Both of them were able to stick with the lead pack for the majority of the race, which was awesome to see.

Eric Packer in the 10k classic

The lead pack in the skate race

Cooling down from the classic race with Caitlin and Becca

As soon as the men finished their 20km mass start on Thursday, we packed up and headed to Estonia. We stayed at the Joulumae Recreation Center with all the other teams that were racing. It was very isolated and I have no idea how far away the nearest town was but it was fun to be surrounded by all the other racers and we staying right on the trails. Saturday we had a classic sprint. The women's course was very flat and the weather was right around freezing again with some falling snow so waxing was tricky. I ended up racing on zeroes again and looking back, I think klister would have been a better choice for the qualifier because while the zeroes had bombproof kick, they didn't feel very fast and you definitely wanted speedy skis on a course that was mainly double pole. I think most people had switched to some kind of zeroes for the rounds once it began to snow some more. My quarter final was very frustrating. I had an okay start but there was one girl in my heat that was extremely aggressive and cut me off multiple times. It was hard to pass out there and I finished 4th in my heat. I was pretty bummed after that day but I tried to clear my head and get excited for the next day, the skate sprint. Before moving to the skate sprint, a result definitely worth noting was Jennie Bender's 4th place qualification in the classic sprint - really impressive!

On Sunday morning, the snow started to fall around the time of the prelim. I qualified 5th and then put my legs up for awhile and waited for the heats to start. I led my quarter final heat because I knew it was hard to pass. Position was important because it was a course with a lot of turns, so you wanted to have the choice of best line. I ended up winning my quarter final but it was hard leading the whole way. In my semi, I didn't have a great start but tried to hold my own and keep best line and then I slingshotted around some people on the final turn and ended up winning! In my final, I had the same strategy as my semi and slowly moved my way up into second throughout the course and then had a sprint finish for 1-3. I ended up 2nd and it was a really fun and exciting race. It was awesome to have the US Scando squad out there cheering and since the course was only 1.1km, I felt like I could constantly here one of them cheering out there. It was nice to end the week on a high note and we quickly ate lunch and drove to Riga, where we would be flying from the following morning.

A final (Reese photo)

Reese photo

2nd! (Reese photo)

Special thanks to Bryan, Gus, and Josh for the waxing and organizing they did. Each race day we had tricky conditions and they had to work their butts off but always came through with great skis! The boys and girls had a music video competition during Scando and it took some convincing for me to participate but I was glad I did and they were both very funny. You can watch the boys' video HERE and the girls' video HERE.

On Monday I flew to Zurich from Riga and took the train from Zurich to Davos. It was quite the adventure. Traveling with a ski bag by train is not something I would recommend, but people were generally very helpful and friendly. I arrived in Davos on Monday night just in time for a delicious dinner at our hotel. So far the food is a lot more colorful, the sky is a little sunnier, and there is skiing right out the door, so no complaints here! I will be racing the classic sprint World Cup on Saturday and then heading to Italy for World Champs on Sunday! The sprint course is pretty long and hilly with some very sharp corners on both the ups and the downs. Here are a few pictures from Davos so far.

delicious!

Noah and I enjoyed some tasty waffles at a local coffee shop

SUN!!!

snowy walk with Noah in town yesterday (Noah photo)